Cyclops (Scott Summers)
right|frame|Cyclops Real Name: Scott Summers Nicknames: Slim, Fearless Leader, One-Eye Former Aliases: Eric the Red, Slym Dayspring, Mutate 007 Other Current Aliases: None known Status Occupation: Adventurer, headmaster, former student, radio announcer Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record Identity: Public Marital Status: Widower Group Affiliation: X-Men, Corsairs, formerly X-Factor, Factor Three Base of Operations: Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York, formerly X-Factor Complex, Manhattan Origin Scott is a mutant, born with his amazing abilities that developed during puberty. Place of Birth: Anchorage, Alaska Known Relatives: Christopher (aka Corsair, father), Katherine Anne (mother, deceased), Alexander (aka Havok, brother), Gabriel (aka Vulcan, brother), Philip, Deborah (paternal grandparents), Madelyne Pryor (aka Goblin Queen, first wife, deceased), Jean Grey (aka Phoenix, Marvel Girl, second wife, deceased), Nathan Christopher (aka Cable, son), Rachel (aka Marvel Girl, Phoenix, daughter from Earth-811), John Grey (father-in-law, deceased), Elaine Grey (mother-in-law, deceased), Sara Grey-Bailey (sister-in-law, deceased), Gailyn (niece, deceased), Joey (nephew, deceased), Tyler (aka Genesis, grandson, deceased), Aliya Jenscot (daughter-in-law, deceased) First Appearance: ''Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #1'' History Scott Summers was the older of the two sons of Major Christopher Summers, a test pilot in the U. S. Air Force. When Scott was a child, Major Summers flew himself, his wife Katherine, and his sons Scott and Alex back from a vacation in his vintage private plane. The plane was attacked and set ablaze by a scout ship from the alien Shi'ar Empire. Katherine pushed Scott and Alex out the plane door with the only available parachute. The parachute was unable to slow their fall sufficiently to prevent Scott from suffering a head injury on landing. (The injury damaged the part of Scott's brain that would have enabled him to control his optic blasts.) With their parents presumed dead, the authorities separated the two boys. Alex was adopted, but Scott remained comatose in a hospital for a year. On recovering, he was placed in an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska that was secretly controlled by his future enemy, the evil geneticist Mr. Sinister. As a teenager, Scott came into the foster care of Jack Winters, a mutant criminal known as the Jack O'Diamonds. After Scott began to suffer from severe headaches he was sent to a specialist who discovered that lenses made of ruby quartz corrected the problem. Soon after, Scott's mutant power first erupted from his eyes as an uncontrollable blast of optic force. The blast demolished a crane, causing it to drop its payload toward a terrified crowd. Scott saved lives by obliterating the object with another blast, but the bystanders believed that he had tried to kill them and rallied into an angry mob. Scott fled, escaping on a freight train. Winters sought to use Scott's newfound talent in his crimes, and physically abused the young boy when he initially refused. However, Scott's display of power had attracted the attention of the mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier, who teamed up with F.B.I. agent Fred Duncan in their mutual attempt to find Scott. Scott was rescued from Winters' clutches and was enlisted by Xavier as the first member of the X-Men, a team of young mutants who trained to use their powers in the fight for human/mutant equality. As Cyclops, Scott became deputy leader of the X-Men. While he was a skilled tactician, his social skills were lacking. Scott had fallen in love with his teammate Jean Grey, but his reserved demeanor prevented him from expressing his feelings for her for years. When Xavier's other original recruits left the fold following an encounter with the sentient island-being Krakoa, Cyclops stayed on as deputy leader of the new team. Shortly thereafter, the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force took Jean's place. When it committed suicide, Scott believed the love of his life had died and he left the X-Men. During his time away from the team, Scott met fishing boat captain Lee Forrester who helped him work through his grief. Scott eventually returned to the X-Men whereupon he met Madelyne Pryor, a woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to Jean. Unaware that Madelyne was a clone of Jean created by Sinister, Scott fell in love with Madelyne and they were soon married. Madelyne fell pregnant and bore Scott a son named Nathan Christopher. When the real Jean emerged from suspended animation, Scott abandoned his wife and son and rejoined the other original X-Men in establishing a new team, X-Factor. During a demonic invasion of New York City, X-Factor and the X-Men fought against a super-powered and insane Madelyne. The invasion was thwarted after Madelyne perished in combat with Jean. Later, the mutant warlord named Apocalypse infected baby Nathan with a techno-organic virus. To save his son's life, Scott had to allow a member of the Clan Askani to transport Nathan two millennia into the future, where it had been foreseen that he would deliver the world from Apocalypse’s clutches. X-Factor disbanded soon after, and its members returned to the ranks of the X-Men. Scott and his long-time love Jean were married, and whilst on their honeymoon their spirits were taken into the timestream by the Clan Askani’s matriarch. Arriving in the future, they inhabited new bodies and raised Nathan for twelve years. When they returned to their own time and bodies, Nathan remained in the future and ultimately matured into his time's greatest hero: Cable. Following Professor X's arrest for crimes committed as the evil psionic entity Onslaught, Scott assumed the role of leadership of the X-Men once more. Soon after, the government sponsored mutant-hunting operation known as "Zero Tolerance" took effect, and the villainous Bastion captured the X-Men. In his attempt to destroy mutantkind, Bastion placed a nanotech bomb inside Scott’s body. The X-Men escaped, and the mutant doctor named Cecilia Reyes saved Scott’s life. Scott and his wife soon took a leave of absence from the X-Men for a period of recuperation. Not long after returning to the team, Scott and Jean soon found themselves embroiled in Apocalypse's bid for cosmic power by assembling "The Twelve" - a group of mutants who would determine the fate of their kind that included Scott, Jean, and Cable. They were wired to a machine that would channel their awesome energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb the body of the time-tossed powerful mutant teenager known as X-Man. As his teammates fell around him, a powerless Scott saved X-Man and merged with the would-be conqueror to create a new evil entity. Jean detected Scott's psyche inside Apocalypse and prevented the X-Men from destroying him, however he was presumed dead by most of his teammates. Only Jean and Cable refused to believe Scott had perished. Investigating rumors he was alive, the pair found him in the birthplace of Apocalypse in Akkaba, Egypt, struggling to reassert his mind over the villain's psyche. Ultimately, Jean was able to physically rip Apocalypse's essence from Scott's body using her mental powers, and Cable destroyed it with his own powers. Scott left for a small period of recuperation, during which he met and reconciled with his father. Afterwards, Scott returned to the X-Men, but his association with Apocalypse had given him a grimmer, more serious personality than ever before. As a result, many of his relationships became strained, including his marriage to Jean. When Jean began to show signs of the Phoenix Force, Scott only further distanced himself from her. Instead of attempting to reconcile with his estranged-wife, Scott turned to Emma Frost, once known as the White Queen, a former villain who had reformed and joined the X-Men. Emma took advantage of this situation to get close to Scott. Under the guise of counseling him, she was able to instigate a telepathic affair. When Phoenix discovered the affair, Cyclops attempted to deny he and Emma had done anything wrong by claiming that 'they were just thoughts'. The fact that Scott attempted to justify his actions, and Emma's snide jeers, drove Jean to psychically assault Emma. She forced Emma not only to admit her true feelings, but to also come to terms with her many failures and sins. Scott, who could not handle being confronted by his hurt wife, subsequently left the X-Men to mull over what was happening in his life. As he returned the sentient DNA known as John Sublime, had taken control of the original Xorn, who was also wearing the guise of Magneto, attacked the X-Men and killed Jean in the process (although she would later be resurrected by the Phoenix Force). Due to the telepathic intervention of the Jean of an alternate future, in an attempt to prevent said future from coming to pass, Cyclops and Emma Frost are currently romantically involved. Several of their teammates are none too happy with this because they feel that Cyclops and Emma are insulting the memory of Jean Grey and the marriage she and Scott once shared. Following the outing of Professor X as a mutant to the world, his school was rechristened the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning and opened its doors to the mutant population at large, training and educating dozens of young new students to help them cope with their burgeoning abilities. After the death of his wife, Scott assumed the position of co-headmaster of the School alongside his new love, Emma. They serve as co-headmasters of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Cyclops also tutors a squad at the institute named, The Corsairs, named after Cyclops’ father. The team consists of Dryad (Callie Betto), Quill (Maxwell Jordan), Specter (Dallas Gibson), and the three remaining Stepford Cuckoos. Deciding that the X-Men need to play more of a role in emergency rescue and aid, Cyclops has handpicked a team in order to get out into the world more. This team recently faced an alien named Ord of the Breakworld. The team subdued Ord, but not before learning that one of their own will be responsible for the destruction of Ord's homeworld in the coming year, leaving the X-Men divided. Recently, a mysterious villain attacked and easily defeated several members of the team, including Cyclops and his alternate-reality daughter, Rachel. The two were captured and taken to an undisclosed location, which Cyclops vaguely remembered visiting in the past. Eventually managing to free themselves, Cyclops and Rachel attempted to escape, only to run into their captor (revealed to be named Vulcan), who informed Cyclops that he was the X-Man's younger brother. A powerless Professor Xavier confirmed this information in the final book of the mini-series. This new information has left Cyclops resentful towards his mentor and has gone so far as to demand that Xavier leave the school as it is no longer 'his'. During an imprompu telepathic "therapy session", Emma Frost presented Cyclops with the possibility that his lack of control over his optic blasts actually stems from a sort of mental block that the young Scott imposed upon himself after the combined traumas of the loss of his parents, separation from his brother, and shocking manifestation of his powers; this is seen as a coping mechanism, giving Scott something to focus on and try to maintain some sort of control over at a time when events completely out of his control had effectively shattered the life he had led up to that point. Surprisingly, Scott seems to admit that this theory is the truth of the matter, further admitting that he had even blocked making this decision out of his memory, to preserve the fallacy in his own mind and prevent others from discovering his "secret" (how Emma Frost was able to root this out of his mind when more powerful telepaths who have had longer personal relationships with Scott, such as Charles Xavier and Jean Grey, were unable to, has yet to be explained). The issue ends with Scott apparently in a catatonic state, with his eyes uncovered and displaying their natural shade of brown, with no evidence of his powers manifesting. Apparently Emma was right: a fully recovered Cyclops rose in the subsequent issue from his catatonic state to shoot Perfection in the back with a pistol. However it has not been established yet, whether Cyclops has full control of his power or has been rendered completely powerless. Characteristics Height: 6'1" Weight: 181 lbs (82.1 kg) Eyes: Brown (glowing red when his power is active) Hair: Brown Unusual Features: None Powers Known Powers: Cyclops is an Alpha-Level mutant. Optic Blasts (formerly): ability to project a beam of heat less ruby-colored concussive force from his eyes, which act as inter-dimensional apertures between this universe and another. His optic blast does not possess characteristics of a red laser (heat and/or the ability to burn/melt objects); the beam instead generates pressure. Cyclops can use his powers by either destroying or softening objects. Cyclops' body constantly absorbs ambient energy, such as sunlight, from his environment into his body's cells that allows him to open the apetures. Cyclops' mind generates a psionic field that is attuned to the forces that maintain the apertures. Because this field envelops his body, it automatically shunts the other-dimensional particles back into their point of origin when they collide with his body. Thus his body is protected from the effects of the particles, and even the thin membrances of his eyelids are sufficent to block the emission of energy. The synthetic ruby quartz crystal used to fashion the lenses of Cyclops' eyewear is resonant to his minds' psionic field and is similarly protected. The width of Cyclops' optic blast is focused by his minds psioinc field with same automatic function that regulated his original eyes' ability to focus. As Cyclops focuses, the size of the apertures change and thus act as a valve to control the flow of particles and the beam's realtive power. The height of his eye blasts is controlled by his visor's adjustable slit. His narrowest beam, about the diameter of a pencil at a distance of 4 ft, has a force about 2 pounds per square inch. His broadest beam that has so far been observed, about 90 ft across at a distance of 50 ft, has a force of about 10 pounds per square inch. His most powerful eye blast is a beam 4 ft across which, at a distance of 50 ft, has a force of about 500 pounds per square inch. The beam's effective range is about 2,000 ft, at which point a 1 inch beam has spread out to 10 ft square, and then has a pressure of .38 pounds per square inch. Cyclops' maximum force is sufficent to tip over a filled 5,000 gallon tank truck at a distance of 20 ft, or puncture a 1 inch carbon steel plate at a distance of 2 feet. However, it has been revealed that Summers avoids using the full extent of his power, for it can go out of his controll and even kill him. Once mind-controlled, he was forced to level the full wrath of his optic blast on Bishop which the latter could barely survive. Bishop redirected the consumed energy upwards,and the following burst was able to momentally desintegrate an Ogre Unit Sentinel's arm, who's armor was supposed to sustain 7 seconds of constant exposure to Cyclops's optic blast at full power. Spatial Awareness: Possesses a superhuman sense of spatial awareness, which enables him to pull off often quite absurd trick shots with his optic blasts, such as ricocheting a single shot to destroy half-a-dozen separate targets. The sense also makes him a dynamite pool hustler, and enables him to engage in hand-to-hand combat with his eyes shut. While he rarely removes his visor, Cyclops will at times take off his glasses in order to fire. On several occasions, Jean Grey was able to restrain his blasts, or force him to use them, with her telekinesis. Cyclops normally sees the world in various shades of red due to this energy, but has learned to distinguish colors. During periods where he has been unable to use his power, his eyes function normally. Due to a quirk of mutant heredity, Cyclops is immune to the energy blasts of his brother Havok, just as Havok is immune to Cyclops's power. An attack by one brother against the other will merely strengthen the recipient. Known Abilities: Cyclops is an expert pilot of fixed-wing aircraft, a skill he appears to have inherited from his father. It has also been implied that his trigonometric sense improves his abilities in the air. A master strategist and tactician, Cyclops has spent most of his superhero career as the leader of either the X-Men or X-Factor and has developed exceptional leadership skills. It is notable that regardless of their general attitude towards him, all of the X-Men tend to obey his orders in battle - because they know that he's usually right. Cyclops also has extensive training in martial arts and unarmed combat, holding black belts in judo and aikido. His level of skill is sufficient to defeat six normal men with his eyes closed and he has in the past held his own against such dangerous enemies as Wolverine and Ghost Rider. Strength Level: Normal human male with intensive regular exercise. Miscellaneous Equipment: Cyclops' Visor. The mask Scott wears to prevent random discharge is lined with powdered ruby quartz crystal. It incorporates two longitudinally mounted flat lenses which can lever inward providing a constantly variable exit slot of 0 inches to .79 inches in height and a constant width of 5.7 inches. The inverted clamshell mechanism is operated by a twin system of miniature electrical motors. As a safety factor their is a constant positive closing pressure provided by springs. The mask itself is made of high-impact cycolac plastic. There is an overriding finger-operated control mechanism on either side of the mask, and normal operation is through a flat micro-switch installed in the thumb of either glove. A separate pair of lenses were also designed for Scott to use while sleeping. Transportation: X-Men Blackbird, formerly X-Men Stratojet, Sentinel Air Transport and X-Factor Plane. Weapons: When Scott used the disguise of Erik the Red, he was able to project his optic blasts through it's gloves. Notes * Due to a brain injury, Cyclops is unable to shut off his optic blasts at will and must therefore wear a visor or glasses with ruby quartz lenses that block the beams. Mister Sinister has claimed that this is false and that Scott's eyes and brain became too reliant on the ruby quartz lenses. However, as with most of Sinister's claims, this must be viewed with skepticism. * Emma Frost said that he can't control his power, because of losing his parents, being split with from his brother, and later having head injuries; the outcome to this revelation has not yet been resolved. Appearances in Other Media * Cyclops is played by James Marsden in the all three X-Men films. In them, Cyclops is the field leader of the X-Men and in a relationship with Jean Grey and does not get along with Wolverine, who is in love with Jean as well. Although an important figure, his role seems to be overshadowed in favor of characters such as Wolverine. In X3, when Jean Grey resurrects, it appears she kills him when they begin to kiss although this is unknown since his "death" was off screen and he can still be alive. * In the X-Men animated series, Cyclops was voiced by Norm Spencer. In this version, Scott was the established team leader and was in a relationship with Jean Grey from the beginning of the series, acting more or less as his mainstream counterpart would. Throughout the series, Scott also discovered that his father was the space-pirate Corsair. During a battle with the government team known as X-Factor, Scott had to fight his brother Alex, aka Havok. Though neither of the two seemed aware that they were brothers of each other, even though their powers had no effect on each other, as was also often the case in the comics. When the series ended, Scott and Alex never had the chance to discover they are related. * In a later animated series, X-Men Evolution, Cyclops was voiced by Kirby Morrow. Here, Scott Summers is the X-Men's field leader. In contrast to his mainstream version, this version of Scott is a confident and self-assured leader with a much more extroverted personality; his teammates all look up to him, especially since he was Xavier's original recruit. * Cyclops is also included in games such as X-Men Mutant Academy, X-Men Mutant Academy 2, X-Men Next Dimension, X-Men Legends, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Recommended Readings: *Tales of Suspense #49 - Present with the X-Men when the Angel, whose mind had been corrupted by exposure to radiation from a nuclear explosion, announced that he was leaving the team and joining the evil mutants. Observed the Angel's battle with Iron Man. *Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 - Cameo Appearance *X-Factor Vol. 1 #1 - After leaving his wife Madelyne Pryor, Cyclops is convinced to rejoin the original members of the X-Men and form X-Factor, an organization dedicated to finding and training a new generation of mutants. Related Articles * Jean Grey * Madelyne Pryor * X-Men * Mister Sinister * Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) * Cable * White Queen (Emma Frost) See Also * Character Gallery: * Appearances of * Summers Family Tree External Links * References * Marvel Directory ---- Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Living Characters Category:Good Characters Category:Mutant Characters Category:Brown Hair Category:Brown Eyes Category:Silver Age Category:American Category:Widowed Characters Category:Public Identity Category:X-Men members Category:X-Factor members Category:198